Maxine Monday

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Lexie's Bracelet

Last week I was reading Bev's Jewelry blog when she showed the steps she uses to make "Lexie's Bracelets". Lexie is a young girl who has been fighting brain cancer since she was only a few months old. She has a CaringBridge site where you can read about her, she is now 10 years old and continues the fight.

But back to Bev - she makes jewelry (Lexie's Jewelry) which she gives a portion of the proceeds of - to cancer research (Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, Boston, MA). I thought it was a terrific thing she does, and since Lexie has recently had some measurable growth of her tumor, it would be a good time to buy me some jewels! Isn't it pretty? Made with 5 colors of Swarovski pearls and Bali silver daisy spacers, it's so simple and subtle, easily worn with almost anything! Looks good even on MY chubby wrist!












I just couldn't figure out which picture I liked best! Thanks Bev! It's beautiful!

Sweating at City Hall

Today I went to a town hall meeting and I am SO freaking proud of myself! See, I'm not a joiner. I don't DO this kind of thing. This town hall was held by Illinois Congressman Mark Kirk.

I didn’t see any protestors outside (although they were there when I left) when I got there about an hour ahead of time, because they were already inside the building sitting in every available seat! I found a place to wedge myself (standing) and was very quickly blocked into the spot between 2 very rude move-on.org guys. THAT wasn’t fun.

When they announced there were so many people they were breaking it up into 2 separate meetings – I made my way back out into the hallway after standing squashed between hot and sweaty people for a full hour (BEFORE the meeting even started!) where I may or may not have been experiencing hot flashes anyway.

Below is the transgendered woman who was dressed better than me, who asked if Congressman Kirk’s proposed healthcare plan would cover gender reassignment surgery. Honestly I did not even hear the answer but – REALLY? I mean, I WAS out in the hallway. But – um . . . REALLY???

I’m glad I went, I learned it’s not so hard to be part of the process. I also learned that cops can’t seem to keep their eyes off beautiful female reporters when they keep striding past them. Seriously, they could have been used as decoys if someone had wanted to get by those officers!

Just reporting what I witnessed. Just the facts Ma’am.

**Adding - I forgot to mention how many elderly men and women were left standing today in that crowded and hot room while many a young person was seated quite comfortably, thank you very much! I was appalled.

Maxine Monday

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It goes on and on . .

I have such a headache. It’s the mom thing again. I’m afraid the brother she is living with is having a really hard time with having her there lately. He is ill and this round of treatment is kicking his butt and he is crabby and impatient. I’ll be honest – it’s really hard to be patient with her sometimes when you’re not sick, so I get it.

Trying to find out if she is eligible for Medicaid for an adult daycare program, or maybe some in-home care is a nightmare. Especially from a different state. When I suggested she come here by me she says “I’m comfortable here.” I’m guessing my brothers and I are going to have to decide what to do and she is going to have to go along with it. She can’t be alone and my brother can’t continue being her caretaker when he has all he can do to take care of himself right now.

Tonight? I’m going to take some ibuprophen and check my lottery ticket.

You’re killin’ me here!

I have been having an incredibly hard time keeping up with all the blogs lately. I love reading all the blogs I subscribe to but can y’all do me a favor? Post every 2 or 3 days, okay? Every day and more than once a day means I am going to get behind for sure, and severely limits my ability to comment on all the posts I would like to.

Thank you very much. Please go back to your regularly scheduled activities.

**This in no way applies to The Itty Bitty Kitty Committee because I will look at those pictures any day, several times a day. KITTIES!!!!

Just sayin’.

Wii for the elderly

How many nights do I go to sleep picturing myself getting on the treadmill (never outside, I'm not THAT crazy) and running like I'm training for something? Never mind that I was never a runner, even in high school at 104 pounds (I WAS TOO - my freshman and sophomore years) I couldn't run a whole mile without walking some of it.

There was a time when I worked out all the time, for about 2 or 3 years and that was all she wrote. Now - I not only don't exercise, I don't MOVE. I've been eating better than I ever have in my life and still not losing weight so you know working out is the missing element.

Tonight I got on the treadmill and started moving. I thought about it all day at work, gearing myself up for a workout when I got home and was just starting to walk - when my BF showed up all cute and bearing gifts. He's kind of hard to resist when he smiles and his nose crinkles all up. He brought me a strawberry/pineapple slushy thing that was really good. But spending time with him and having my slushy meant getting off the treadmill almost as soon as I started.

Still, it wasn't all cold, fruity kisses. BF suggested we play tennis. On the Wii. OH! Exercise of another kind, okay, I can do that! He being of the athletic persuasion and me being from the totally sucking community, I still thought it could be fun and it was!

But about 10 minutes into it I looked at him and he looked at me and I realized we were both playing with our reading glasses perched on the ends of our noses. Um . . I guess we couldn't see the remote well enough . . .

You KNOW what I said to him and made us both laugh, right?

"WE'RE OLD!"

But we kept playing!

Maxine Monday

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Other people's stories

One of my co-workers had a conference call the other day, and during the call the subject of out-sourcing came up. One of the people who was on the call (paying attention - this is story in 3rd person-ish) said they knew somebody (4th) who worked for a big phone company (may or may not be AT&T) and lost their job due to outsourcing. Well then - one of the guys (5th) from the company (may or may not be AT&T) wanted to pay a visit to India to see the office and the setup and see how things were going.

And - he walked into an empty office. Apparently the Indian workers had out-sourced their jobs! So, a U.S. company fires some workers to out-source to a different country where essentially they can be paid less, save money, yada yada yada. They were pretty good at hiring some smart people - smart enough to say hey - I can pay some other guys over here half of what I'm getting and I can go do something else! So it is rumored that this company is now bringing those jobs back here.

Here. Where they should have been to begin with.

Another co-workers story, we have divorced parents, and 2 kids. Teenage girl lives at Dads house a lot of the time and is always in need of money as teenage girls usually are. Losing her job to a text firing (I know, right?) she especially needed some money so she went to her dad. He said sure - clean up the back yard and I'll give you some money.

She went out there and started cleaning up the yard, raking and the like when she came across a nasty dirty pair of - HER panties! THONG panties! EXPENSIVE Vickies Secret THONG PANTIES! In the yard! A few other pairs landed in the pile of leaves and the story became clear. Said teenage girl seemed to be missing panties but kind of shrugged her shoulders - socks get lost in the dryer right? Her panties must have been going the way of the socks. But no, finding them uh . . soiled . . in the manner they were in the yard - or so the story goes - it was the dog. The dog was eating the panties. And somehow the damn dog not only ate them - but was able to pass them too! So this teenage girl was making money cleaning up her own nasty gastrointestinally soiled panties in the yard!

And I'm thinking - if she's going to be letting her panties go that easily, Mom better start buying her cheap big girl panties and maybe they won't be as attractive or as easily digested by the dog!

Maxine Monday

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Rainy days and Mondays

In my stumbles around the internet I have run across some sites that are ridiculously funny, ridiculously cute, or just plain .. wait for it .. ridiculous! So let’s pretend this does not illustrate just how boring my life really is, and allow me to share some places I’ve found with you.

I ran into a site called My Manicure which is all about manicures. Ahem. Every post is a different manicure, ideas I never would have dreamed of, and tutorials on how to do them. Pictures are great! ** Whoops! The gal who did THAT blog has moved. Look here! Nails by Asami. Fabulous!

Now, how often do you come home from work tired and crabby, or had a day from hell with the kids? And just maybe some CUTE would make you feel better? I’m warning you. Do not go to this site unless you are in need of some optimus prime CUTE. The Itty Bitty Kitty Committee. A nice lady named Laurie fosters kittens for the humane society in the Seattle/Tacoma area. She is also a very good photographer. I am guilty of reading none of it and just scrolling through picture after picture of feline adorable-ness.

When I stumble I tend to find lots of cooking sites with desserts to die for. Do you think that’s because when I see chocolate on a doily I automatically give it a thumbs up? This site I didn’t dare look at other than the one recipe I saw. I think I gained 5 lbs just looking at it. The Novice Chef has a picture of cheesecake stuffed strawberries that look so good I thought I would short out my laptop by drooling on my keyboard, and yes, there IS chocolate involved.

The blog La mesa de trabajo is in Spanish (or some form of it), which I do not speak a lick of. I was able to tell the artist lives in Buenos Aires, I loved looking at all the pictures and omg he has an adorable kid! It’s so worth a look!

This blog has a name that is self-explanatory. Smartass Ideas for The Home. ‘Nuff said.

I love websites that equalize us as humans which this one does by illustrating what someone will do when they are really, really hungry. I Still Ate It. Unfortunately I have to admit I could relate to some of the stories. I may or may not have had some microwave popcorn with an expiration date sometime in 2007, tonight. *cough cough* Very short posts contributed by readers. Too funny!

This last one I leave you with just has to be seen, it’s basically the steps involved in making a bacon and cheese stuffed pizza burger. But this is just not any pizza burger. It’s like a train wreck, you just have to look! Make sure you click to make it bigger and vegetarians may want to give it a pass! And really? I know a couple of guys who might attempt it!

**Updated and added new link. Really, it's amazing what she does with nails!

Maxine Monday

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